IDFA 2009
Pianomania
Lilian Franck, Robert Cibis
Germany
2009
93 min
n.a.
Stefan Knüpfer, Steinway & Sons' captivating concert technician and piano tuner, assists an assortment of famous concert pianists in the quest for the perfect sound. Armed with humor, patience, and a generous dose of creativity, he fiddles with the grand pianos as long as it takes for their sound to seduce the pianists. This is not always an easy task -- "Pianists are never really satisfied," Knüpfer confides to the camera. If necessary, he tinkers with the hammer heads until deep into the night, or goes to work like a true inventor with electric drills, tennis balls, and "sound reflectors" that he concocted himself. In the build-up to Pierre-Laurent Aimard's Bach recordings in the Wiener Konzerthaus, the tension can be cut with a knife. Will Knüpfer manage to find an alternative for Aimard's favorite Steinway, which much to his horror has been sold? He begins a quest for a new grand piano that will meet the expectations of this perfectionist pianist. In between all the stress, the concert halls that Knüpfer visits elicit a great deal of beautiful music, performed by pianists like Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, and Rudolf Buchbinder.
Credits
Screening copy
WILDart Film
WILDart Film
World Sales
WILDart Film
WILDart Film
Distribution for the Netherlands
Cinema Delicatessen
Cinema Delicatessen
Production
Involved TV Channel
ORF Fernsehprogramm-Service, K1-1/Konzernrechnungswesen,
ZDF
ORF Fernsehprogramm-Service, K1-1/Konzernrechnungswesen,
ZDF
Cinematography
Editing